Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Japan has beaten
South Africa 34-32 in a 2015 Rugby World Cup pool match, causing the greatest
upset in the tournament’s history. The Japanese team scored a last minute try
to seal victory in Brighton. It was a
brilliant display by Japan, particularly from fullback Ayumu Goromaru who
slotted five penalties two conversions and scored a try of his own.

Heard of – ‘Haka’-
a traditional ancestral war cry, dance, or challenge from the Māori people of
New Zealand. It is a posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous
movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted
accompaniment. War haka were originally
performed by warriors before a battle, proclaiming their strength and prowess
in order to intimidate the opposition, but haka are also performed for various
reasons: for welcoming distinguished guests, or to acknowledge great
achievements, occasions or funerals, and kapa haka performance groups are very
common in schools.

The 2015 Rugby
World Cup is the ongoing eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union
world championship. The tournament is currently being hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Twickenham
Stadium in London will host the final.
England was chosen to host the competition in July 2009, beating rival
bids from Italy, Japan and South Africa.
There are 20 teams in the fray and 12
of them qualified by finishing in the top three places in their pools in
the 2011 World Cup. The other eight teams qualified through regional
competition.

The New Zealand
sports teams' practice of performing a haka before their international matches
has made the dance more widely known around the world. This tradition began
with the 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team tour and has been carried on
by the New Zealand rugby team since 1905.
The New Zealand national men's rugby union team is officially nicknamed the All Blacks !

They have won over
76% of their Test matches and are the leading Test match points scorers of all
time. They are the only international side with a winning record against every
country they have played, and since their international debut in 1903 only five
nations have defeated New Zealand in Test matches. New Zealand compete with
Argentina, Australia and South Africa in The Rugby Championship – known as the
Tri Nations before Argentina's entry in 2012.
They have also been named the World Rugby Team of the Year seven times
since 2005.

The team's first
match was in 1884, and their first international match in 1903 against
Australia in Sydney. New Zealand's early
uniforms consisted of a black jersey with a silver fern and white
knickerbockers. They perform a haka – a Māori challenge or posture
dance – before each match. The haka performed has traditionally been Te Rauparaha's
Ka Mate, although since 2005 Kapa o Pango – a modified version has occasionally
been performed.

Kiwis are not the
only team to perform the war dance prior to the match. Fiji, Samoa and Tonga all have their own
tribal dance to perform pre-match as well.

The dance itself is
extremely old and cloaked in legend. The All Blacks have been doing it before
Tests since the turn of last century. And not any old person can lead it -
tradition dictates that the person delivering the initial commands (loosely
translated as "Slap your hands on your thighs, stick out your chest, bend
your knees") is of Maori heritage.
Even those who don't know much about rugby - have heard and seen the "haka" of
the All Blacks, a sequence of foot-stomping, tongue-wagging and violent
gesticulation, accompanied by deep, rhythmic chanting.

The haka was on
show Sunday in London, when the All Blacks defeated Argentina in their first
match at the the Rugby World Cup. It is
an intimidating sight for any opponent lining up against it; on the rugby
field, some sides facing New Zealand have attempted ripostes, though they
rarely look all that convincing. And,
like other powerful symbols of national identity, the haka is no stranger to
commercial opportunists.